How to fill in an application form at Young Scot
Click here for helpful tips on writing and submitting your application ↓
Thank you for your interest in joining Young Scot – we're really excited to read your application telling us why we should consider you to help us in our vital work with young people.
You can find the online application form within each job description we are advertising.
If you'd prefer to fill in your application as a Word document, please download it here and email it to us at recruitment@young.scot by the deadline noted on the advert.
If you need any support or have any questions, please email us at recruitment@young.scot.
Blind recruitment
We run a 'blind' recruitment process here at Young Scot. This means we remove your name, address and any other information that identifies you from the application forms we share with the panel shortlisting for the role. We also intentionally don't ask for your age or information about your education. You can tell us about any education or training that's relevant to the role, but please don't share any school/college/university names or dates.
Running blind recruitment helps us to reduce unconscious bias. On each page of our online application form, we let you know if we will be sharing the information you record on that page with the Young Scot panel who are shortlisting for the role. We do share all the information you give us with our Human Resources colleagues, but they are not involved in shortlisting or interviews. Please do take a look at our data protection policy for more information on how we use any data you share with us.
Getting started
Please allow enough time to fill in the application form before the deadline listed on the Job Description. We are sorry but we simply can't accept late applications as that will delay our recruitment processes and would be unfair to other candidates.
The online application form includes the following sections:
Information about you
Your references
Your paid work, work experience and volunteering history
What makes you a great candidate for the role
Information about any criminal activity you may have been involved in
More information about you and your background
Information about you
The information we ask for is:
Name
Address. If we offer you a job at Young Scot, we will postal mail information to you before you start with us. Please tell us the best postal address to send this to.
Email address
Mobile number
Are you legally entitled to work in the UK? We can't accept applications from you if you don't have the legal right to work in the UK. If we offer you a job, we will also ask for a copy of your passport or work visa. We will issue your employment contract after we've received these.
Are you a member of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups (PVG) scheme?
Don't worry if you're not a member of the Protecting Vulnerable Groups scheme. If we offer you a job, we will also support you in joining the scheme.
Your references
Information about your current or most recent employer. If you don't have a recent employer, then use your school, college, university or a support worker.
Information about a personal referee (this can be a friend or mentor, but not a family member) or another previous employer.
We won't contact either of these people before you take part in an interview.
Your employment history
Please tell us about your most recent employer, and about the role and your responsibilities. It's vital that you don't include information about your current salary – what we have stated on the job advert is what we will pay.
If you don't have a most recent employer, please tell us about any other work experiences or volunteering roles that make you a great candidate.
Tell us what makes you a great candidate for this role
This section is where you tell us about your experiences and skills that make you a great candidate. Our interview panel will use this information (and the information about your previous employment, work experience and volunteering) to decide whether to invite you for an interview.
Your answer should be no more than 750 words. The Job Description lists the mix of skills and experiences that we are looking for. Please relate your skills and experiences to those we list in the Job Description. We suggest that you break your answer up into the following sections:
Why you are applying for this role (up to 150 words)
Your skills and experiences that make you a great candidate (up to 600 words)
Why you are applying for this role
Tell us why you want to work at Young Scot and what is it about our work that interests you. We would also like to hear about why the role interests you.
Your skills and experiences that make you a great candidate
We don't expect you to have all the skills and experiences listed in the Job Description, but we want to hear more about the ones you do have. The type of information you might choose to share includes:
previous paid work or work experience that's relevant to the job role.
skills and experience you gained outside of paid work (for example from domestic and caring responsibilities, unpaid or voluntary work).
training and education you have undertaken, including courses that didn't lead to a qualification. These could be non-vocational classes or in-house training with your current or previous employer (please don't tell us the name of any school/college/university).
skills you've developed whilst in education, volunteering, work experiences or paid work.
volunteering you've done and the skills you developed whilst taking part.
other relevant achievements, such as being a member of a professional body or association.
Rehabilitation of Offenders Act 1974 (Exclusions and Exemptions) (Scotland) Amendment Order 2015
In this section, we are asking for information about and convictions for criminal offences, and any criminal charges pending? If you have any unspent convictions or cautions, then please do let us know.
More information about you and your background
We are committed to being an explicitly anti-racist organisation committed to equality of opportunity for all job applicants and employees.
It’s important for us to monitor the backgrounds of everyone who applies for a job at Young Scot. This helps us to make sure we are achieving our objectives and understanding who is applying for our roles. We want to have as diverse a staff team as possible and this is one of the ways we measure that.
Please be assured, this information is used only for monitoring purposes and isn’t part of your application. The information is stored separately and that’s why we ask ‘What position are you applying for?’.
If you don’t want to share this information with us, then please use the ‘Prefer not to say’ options.
Next steps
We'll send you a copy of your application to your email for your reference. Also, we respond to everyone who applies to let them know the outcome of their application.
If you need any support or have any questions, please email us or call on 0131 313 2488 or email recruitment@young.scot